Manufacture of ornaments



April 6, 1937- 1.. K. STUPELL MANUFACTURE OF ORNAMENTS Filed Feb. 26, 1934 Patented Apr. 6, 1937 UNITED STATES MANUFACTURE OF ORNAMENTS Leo K. Stupell, New York, N. Y., assignor to Coro- Gram Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application February 26, 1934, Serial No. 712,997

6 Claims.

My present invention relates to the manufacture of ornaments for use with jewelry and other personal articles, and has particular reference to the production of ornaments of any desired shape or color which may be quickly applied or attached to an article of jewelry or the like.

Heretofore ornaments such as designs, figures, monograms, initials, and the like have been formed of metal or other suitable material, and have been affixed to jewelry, silver and metal ware, cigar and cigarette cases, baggage, hand bags, toilet sets, personal articles and other jew-.- elry items by riveting, soldering, or utilizing a non-water soluble adhesive.

The manufacture of such ornaments has been comparatively expensive, as the ornaments have been individually blanked out, cut, or etched out, decorated and finished, ready for attaching to the articles.

I have devised a novel method of manufacture which produces ornaments ready for affixing at a minimum manufacturing cost, by providing a blank sheet or strip which is initially decorated, colored, enameled or otherwise finished, and is coated with a non-water soluble adhesive, whereby any desired ornament may then be cut from the prepared blank and be ready for use without further operation. This novel method of man ufacture thus eliminates decorating of the individual ornaments and instead simplifies the manufacture and lowers the cost by permitting formation of completely prepared blank sheets or strips from which any desired ornament may be readily blanked, cut, or jig-sawed, ready for use.

Although the cutting of ornament blanks from sheet metal has heretofore resulted in the bending of the blanks and the roughening and. curling of the edges, I have found that the use of a suitable decorative material, such as enamel or lacquer, and particularly if such material has a flexible base, such as rubber or the like, prevents such bending, roughening or curling, and in fact permits the stamping, cutting, or jig-sawing of ornaments that have smooth, clean edges.

Moreover, I have found it feasible to utilize an adhesive substance as the securing means; whereas adhesives have heretofore been used for this purpose, I have found that better results and more perfect adhesion are obtained by providing a suitable base for receiving the adhesive material. I have therefore provided a simple and inexpensive base on the metal sheet or strip to obtain a smooth surface adapted to receive and retain the adhesive substance.

The use of a base for receiving the adhesive material further permits me to utilize a substance which also coacts with the metal sheet or strip to prevent cracking or breaking of the metal upon bending thereof. v

With the above and other objects and advan- 5 tageous features in view, my invention consists of a novel method of manufacture and a novel article obtained thereby, more fully described in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, and more fully defined in the claims appended thereto.

Referring to the drawing, I

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a metal strip suitable for the novel manufacture;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the novel strip, after ornamentation and application of adhesive thereto;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but illustrate, ing the addition of a base forming ingredient;

Fig. 4 is a plan view showing one manner of forming the novel product by blanking; and

Figs. 5 and 6 are plan views of different shapes of ornaments such as are readily manufactured by the novel method.

It has been found desirable to improve the production of ornaments such as ornamental designs, figures, monograms, letters and the like, and to reduce the manufacturing cost, by first decorating a metal sheet or strip, then coating the metal sheet or strip with securing means such as non-water soluble adhesive, and then forming the ornaments by an inexpensive manufacturing process such as blanking, stamping, or jig-sawing. To this end, I utilize a thin strip of a suitable metal such as brass, and suitably decorate this metal strip by applying lacquer or enamel of any desired color to the upper surface thereof. I then apply an adhesive material such as a non-water soluble cement to the other side thereof, thus providing a finished blank strip 40 having a decorated upper surface and an adhesive carrying lower surface. In order to insure proper adhesion of the adhesive and prevent stripping or peeling thereof I preferably also apply a base forming material to the lower surface of the metal strip, such as enamel or lacquer, thus providing a smooth even surface which rigidly adheres to the metal strip and affords a perfect base for receiving and. retaining the adhesive material. Any desired ornaments are then readily obtained by stamping or cutting the finished strip or by jig-saw operation, as the edges remain clean, without roughness, thus producing a completed ornament having its upper surface decorated and its lower surface provided with an adhesive; no further manufacturing operations such as trimming or the like are required.

Referring to the drawing, a metal strip, such 5 as designated I0 in Fig. 1, of any suitable length, and preferably made of thin brass of from .003 to .020 inch cross-section, is coated on the upper surface thereof with a coat of enamel or lacquer ll of any desired color or mixture of colors, or

may be plated if desired, and is coated on the lower surface thereof with a coating I2 of nonwater soluble adhesive material, such as for example rubber cement. The coating is obtained by spraying, thus reducing costs. To insure perfect adherence of the adhesive it is preferred to coat the lower surface ofthe metal strip with an enamel or lacquer layer 1 3 before applying the adhesive, and thus obtain a base which firmly adheres to the metal and which offers a smooth,

perfect medium for receiving and retaining adhesive material Id. The adhesive material may be any standard non-water soluble adhesive, ineluding rubber cements.

The metal sheet or strip as commercially obtained has a hard bright surface as the result of rolling. I have found that this surface holds enamel or lacquer perfectly, without need for polishing or otherwise preparing the surface; where it is desired to decorate the ornament by 3 plating the upper surface, it may be advisable to slightly polish the upper surface in order to better receive the plate. The plated ornaments preferably include thelacquer or enamel base for the adhesive, to reduce breaking or cracking of 3 the ornament as the result of stamping or bendlng.

' The finished strip is then stamped or cut by means of a stamping machine or punch press, or by means of a jigsaw, to provide a plurality of 40 ornaments [5, see Fig. 4, of any desired outline,

the ornaments being ready for use immediately after the stamping and cutting operation, as each ornament has a decorative upper surface and an adhesive carrying lower surface.

The shape of the ornament thus obtained may be varied in any desired manner by using different die contours; thus, a block such as indicated as IS in Fig. 5 may be readily obtained, or an ornamental letter suitable for monograms such as indicated by reference character I! in Fig. 6. The cost of manufacture of such ornaments and letters is very low, as the application of the enamel, lacquer or other decorative or base material, and the adhesive material to the metal strip, comprise an inexpensive spraying operation, and the formation of the individual ornaments or ornamental letters merely consists of a blankingor cutting operation, the ornaments and letters then being ready for use. If the ornament is to be secured by mechanical means such as riveting or the like, the adhesive coating may be omitted.

The improved ornaments may be readily applied to articles, by lightly applying a solvent solution to the adhesive so as to render it sticky, and then pressing the ornament to the surface of the article; the sticky adhesive then dries to firmly join the ornament to the article. The ornament may be readily removed, if desired, by using a sufficient amount of solvent to cut the adhesion.

While I have described a specific manufacturing method, and a specific completed ornament or ornamental letter obtained by utilizing such method, it is obvious that the method may be varied to obtain ornaments of desired characteristics, and that the ornaments may be changed by subsequent manipulation, as for example bending, to meet the requirements of different designers, without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In the manufacture of ornaments, the steps of decorating one surface of a thin metal sheet, coating the other surface with a flexible material, applying a coat of non-water soluble adhesive to said coat of flexible material, and

stamping the ornaments from the coated sheet.

2. An ornament having a frame of thin metal, one surface having a base coating for receiving and retaining adhesive material, and a coating of adhesive material on said base coating.

3. An ornament having a frame of thin metal,

one surface having a decorative coating thereon, and the other surface having a base coating for receiving and retaining adhesive material, and a coating of adhesive material on said base coating.

4. A metal sheet for blanking having a coating of flexible material on one surface thereof and a coating of adhesive material on said coating of flexible material, and a coating of decorative material on the other surface thereof.

5. As a new article of manufacture, monogram sheet stock comprising a layer of thin, soft nonresilient metal, a metal facing unitary therewith and dried flexible cement backing unitary therewith.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a monogram sheet stock comprising a layer of thin brass, a metal facing attached to one face thereof, and dried flexible cement backing attached to the other face thereof.

' LEO K. STUPELL. 

